BBC News has coped satisfactorily with the ongoing cuts programme and proved during the Arab spring the importance of investment in news programmes, especially the costly global news division (which Boaden also oversees). However, she did hint in April that the BBC may spend too much on these operations.

Director of news since 2004, Boaden oversees the biggest news operation in the UK, spanning TV, radio and online, from Radio 4's Today programme to the 10pm BBC1 bulletin to 24-hour coverage on the BBC News channel and breaking news on mobile phones.

Although Boaden by inclination avoids the limelight, her steady BBC career saw her touted this year as a potential candidate for the director of vision job. Some see her as having the potential to become the corporation's first ever female director general, but George Entwistle, who took the vision role, may have moved up ahead of her in the pecking order.

A former presenter of Radio 4's Woman's Hour, Boaden was the station's controller between 2000 and 2004. Her previous BBC roles included stints as head of current affairs and head of business programmes.